The state-run news agency Xinhua reported that an explosion tore through a warehouse storing “dangerous and chemical goods” in Binhai, an area of the city by the water.

The firefighting division of the Chinese Public Security Ministry said firefighters were first called to the scene about a fire. An explosion went off after they arrived, it said.

As smoke continued to billow into the sky from the site Thursday, local authorities suspended firefighting efforts at the scene because of a lack of information on the “dangerous goods” that were stored at the warehouse, Xinhua reported.

[…] The state-run China Earthquake Networks Center said in an official post on social media that two of the explosions had carried the force of small earthquakes. The first was measured at magnitude of 2.3, the second at 2.9, it said. [Source]

Foreign journalists who approached a hospital to report were pushed back and verbally assaulted by relatives of victims and other local residents. Will Ripley of CNN was broadcasting live on CNN when he was interrupted and forced off air by distraught survivors.

[..A]longside the pristine new buildings that epitomise China’s rise sat twisted metal, torn off roofs and burnt out huts – remnants of the flimsy metal structures that house workers, and looked instead like crumpled, discarded sweet wrappers.

Brightly coloured bedding was exposed to the morning sun, some stained with splatters of blood.

Construction worker Wang He lived in one of the dormitories, less than a kilometre from the blast, and awoke with a jolt, hitting his head on the ceiling.

“I saw a huge fireball, felt a hot wind on my face and then heard one of the loudest sounds in my life,” the 26-year-old told AFP. [Source]

Fears for safety of up to 300 construction workers lodged next to the Tianjin blast site 天津爆炸点附近一处工地300名工人全部被埋 http://t.co/wPd72UGTeI